Homeschooling is Now a Real Option
Linda Whitlock, a Roanoke Times columnist in the USA, is an adjunct English professor who lives in Salem.
Home schooling puts parents back in control of their children’s education. That’s not to knock the legions of dedicated school teachers who do their best to educate kids. But when someone else is educating your child, it’s that person’s philosophy of education and his or her ideas about what’s important — not yours — that govern what’s taught. That and the government , of course.
True, you can try to influence what happens in your kids’ schools and what’s taught in their classrooms. But it’s hard work; it doesn’t always, or even often, work; you run the risk of being labelled a censor or troublemaker; and in the meantime, your kids aren’t being educated the way you’d like. Why put you or your kids through all that when you can educate them at home?
I can hear all the objections now. But I don’t have a college degree. But we can’t do without the second income. But curriculum and materials cost too much. But my kids won’t want to leave their friends.
Valid concerns, all. But you don’t need a college degree to teach your kids. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, “Home school students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education.” And no matter where you think your academic deficiencies lie, abundant resources are available to assist you.
As for doing without that second income, maybe you should take a close look at what it’s costing you to bring in that extra money. After factoring in child care expenses, fast-food runs and transportation and clothing costs, you might find it doesn’t make as big a contribution to the family coffers as you thought.
Curriculum doesn’t have to be expensive either. A public library and the Internet can provide most of what you need. Anything else you can more than likely pick up used at a reasonable price. Besides, it’s not as if there aren’t any costs associated with sending kids to public schools.
Your kids might surprise you, too. It’s just possible they’ll leap at the chance to escape the public school rat race. OK, maybe not. But once they figure out the benefits of home schooling for themselves, they’ll come around.
Education, the home school license plate says, begins at home. If you decide that’s what you want for your kids, it will require sacrifices on the part of the whole family. But achieving a worthwhile goal always does require sacrifice. And that’s not a bad lesson for any of us to learn.
